SEO: 5 strategies that lead to 2016
For the entire first part of 2015, both the optimizers and content marketers seem to have forgotten everything, except links, keywords and conversion.
If you continue to work diligently (and wisely) on search engine optimization, it would be nice to use the following five strategies to keep up your pace next year : social signals, mobile devices, https, guest blogging, contextual search.
1. Send social cues
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Many digital marketers complain about the low rates of incoming traffic from social networks in relation to the efforts spent on these platforms, but a ray of hope has finally appeared.
Backlinks act as voices for the site, boosting the authority and rating of the domain, but also popular content that you share on social media.
After years of hesitations and vague statements about the importance of social media for ratings, Google finally admitted that they are a useful factor in the visibility of sites , although it works in a very clever way.
At the end of 2014, Google loosened its grip and took the first steps towards non-Google social media platforms in generating search results.
Social networks based on something other than Google+ are included in the Google Knowledge Graph.
After the disappearance of the authorship of Google also from the snippets in the search results, we can expect that the signals from social platforms will become more and more important in subsequent years.
2. Be mobile friendly.
In the past few years, many have predicted the advent of the mobile Internet era. When the share of smartphones became equal to 65% in the Russian mobile phone market, these predictions became true.
Moreover, mobile Internet activity now accounts for more than 30% of all Internet traffic.
Considering such changes in site browsing models, Google has taken a serious step: tagging sites on the search results page as “mobile-friendly” , as a pointer to users.
Obviously, the number of clicks and user activity on sites marked as compatible with mobile devices will be higher than for the rest.
So for beginners: take your time and switch to a responsive design , if you have not done so already. Pay attention to the parameters that Google uses to assign this tag and make the necessary changes to your site immediately, including the following:
• Buttons, large enough to easily click on them on a small device;
• Abundant empty space to avoid "fat finger syndrome";
• Texts - large enough to read without a zoom;
• Links are located at a sufficient distance to avoid errors in the transitions.
Take advantage of Google's Viewability test on mobile devices to make sure your site easily passes it.
3. Switch to https
In connection with the recent large-scale data breaches, a major subject emerged in the digital security discussions. Gone are the days of just online sales, financial sites and the need to spend time and energy on creating airtight sites with SSL encryption.
On the move towards safe browsing for all users in August 2014, Google announced that it would like to use HTTPS for accurate ranking.
Given the terrible situation with web security, coupled with the fact that Google has announced the HTTPS ranking factor, it is really worth investing in obtaining an SSL certificate for your site. This is even more important if your site requires login authentication or uses other personal data of users.
4. Do not abuse guest blogging.
As soon as content began to be perceived as a way of linking and increasing credibility, in 2012-2013 there was a big surge in guest blogging to place links without much interest in how irrelevant or unimportant was the mentioned site. Thousands of low-quality websites asked for a guest post and offered back links instead.
It is not surprising that the distribution of sites with guest posts did not go unnoticed, and at the beginning of 2014 Google stressed that guest blogging is one of the most undesirable methods of earning SEO points.
According to Google: "If you used guest blogging in 2014 to get links, you should probably stop."
But this does not mean that you just have to close the door for guest blogging this and next years, it only means that turning to guest spam posts and dubious sites is really a terrible idea.
To avoid the anger of search engines, prefer quality over quantity. Strive to get really high-quality links from reputable and readable sites, instead of those who simply agreed to publish your content.
However, it is easier to talk about this than to implement. Guest post on a quality website includes two essential components:
• Undoubtedly amazing content.
• Building long-term relationships with the desired site from your niche, instead of searching for sites with one-time links
5. Focus on context search.
Semantic search attracted the attention of Google Hummingbird (search algorithm) in 2013. Experts of all stripes rushed to optimize their content not only for certain words, but also for their synonyms, phrases associated with a product or brand, various content formats, and what?
In 2014, the capabilities of search engine bots for semantic processing became more sophisticated. A well - thought - out SEO strategy will rely on the prospects of the search goals themselves when searching for keywords. So now you have to think like a user and come up with as many combinations as possible for requests related to your product or brand.
Instead of using only keywords, use conversational queries that convey natural language patterns. If you are focusing on keywords, use generic “transactional” words like: sell, buy, cheap, discount, and so on, to meet more likely demands for your brand.
From the data on the correlation of links and ratings, the following conclusion can be made: even a quote from your site without a reverse link to it will raise you in the issuance rating. This works for as long as your brand is mentioned in a relevant context.
Even if your brand is listed with competing companies, the search engine raises your ranking, based on the fact that we are talking about your product category. If someone from the neighboring brands is lucky enough to have a star rating, some of it will be passed on to you through associations.
Search engines continue to keep SEO professionals on their toes. The good news is that SEO is now how user-friendly your site is , not how good you are in tweaking search engines.
New challenge? This is a difficult task - to be really useful for today's well-informed and savvy users. But much more interesting.
Based on materials from Rohan Ayyar.
If you continue to work diligently (and wisely) on search engine optimization, it would be nice to use the following five strategies to keep up your pace next year : social signals, mobile devices, https, guest blogging, contextual search.
1. Send social cues
')
Many digital marketers complain about the low rates of incoming traffic from social networks in relation to the efforts spent on these platforms, but a ray of hope has finally appeared.
Backlinks act as voices for the site, boosting the authority and rating of the domain, but also popular content that you share on social media.
After years of hesitations and vague statements about the importance of social media for ratings, Google finally admitted that they are a useful factor in the visibility of sites , although it works in a very clever way.
At the end of 2014, Google loosened its grip and took the first steps towards non-Google social media platforms in generating search results.
Social networks based on something other than Google+ are included in the Google Knowledge Graph.
After the disappearance of the authorship of Google also from the snippets in the search results, we can expect that the signals from social platforms will become more and more important in subsequent years.
2. Be mobile friendly.
In the past few years, many have predicted the advent of the mobile Internet era. When the share of smartphones became equal to 65% in the Russian mobile phone market, these predictions became true.
Moreover, mobile Internet activity now accounts for more than 30% of all Internet traffic.
Considering such changes in site browsing models, Google has taken a serious step: tagging sites on the search results page as “mobile-friendly” , as a pointer to users.
Obviously, the number of clicks and user activity on sites marked as compatible with mobile devices will be higher than for the rest.
So for beginners: take your time and switch to a responsive design , if you have not done so already. Pay attention to the parameters that Google uses to assign this tag and make the necessary changes to your site immediately, including the following:
• Buttons, large enough to easily click on them on a small device;
• Abundant empty space to avoid "fat finger syndrome";
• Texts - large enough to read without a zoom;
• Links are located at a sufficient distance to avoid errors in the transitions.
Take advantage of Google's Viewability test on mobile devices to make sure your site easily passes it.
3. Switch to https
In connection with the recent large-scale data breaches, a major subject emerged in the digital security discussions. Gone are the days of just online sales, financial sites and the need to spend time and energy on creating airtight sites with SSL encryption.
On the move towards safe browsing for all users in August 2014, Google announced that it would like to use HTTPS for accurate ranking.
Given the terrible situation with web security, coupled with the fact that Google has announced the HTTPS ranking factor, it is really worth investing in obtaining an SSL certificate for your site. This is even more important if your site requires login authentication or uses other personal data of users.
4. Do not abuse guest blogging.
As soon as content began to be perceived as a way of linking and increasing credibility, in 2012-2013 there was a big surge in guest blogging to place links without much interest in how irrelevant or unimportant was the mentioned site. Thousands of low-quality websites asked for a guest post and offered back links instead.
It is not surprising that the distribution of sites with guest posts did not go unnoticed, and at the beginning of 2014 Google stressed that guest blogging is one of the most undesirable methods of earning SEO points.
According to Google: "If you used guest blogging in 2014 to get links, you should probably stop."
But this does not mean that you just have to close the door for guest blogging this and next years, it only means that turning to guest spam posts and dubious sites is really a terrible idea.
To avoid the anger of search engines, prefer quality over quantity. Strive to get really high-quality links from reputable and readable sites, instead of those who simply agreed to publish your content.
However, it is easier to talk about this than to implement. Guest post on a quality website includes two essential components:
• Undoubtedly amazing content.
• Building long-term relationships with the desired site from your niche, instead of searching for sites with one-time links
5. Focus on context search.
Semantic search attracted the attention of Google Hummingbird (search algorithm) in 2013. Experts of all stripes rushed to optimize their content not only for certain words, but also for their synonyms, phrases associated with a product or brand, various content formats, and what?
In 2014, the capabilities of search engine bots for semantic processing became more sophisticated. A well - thought - out SEO strategy will rely on the prospects of the search goals themselves when searching for keywords. So now you have to think like a user and come up with as many combinations as possible for requests related to your product or brand.
Instead of using only keywords, use conversational queries that convey natural language patterns. If you are focusing on keywords, use generic “transactional” words like: sell, buy, cheap, discount, and so on, to meet more likely demands for your brand.
From the data on the correlation of links and ratings, the following conclusion can be made: even a quote from your site without a reverse link to it will raise you in the issuance rating. This works for as long as your brand is mentioned in a relevant context.
Even if your brand is listed with competing companies, the search engine raises your ranking, based on the fact that we are talking about your product category. If someone from the neighboring brands is lucky enough to have a star rating, some of it will be passed on to you through associations.
Search engines continue to keep SEO professionals on their toes. The good news is that SEO is now how user-friendly your site is , not how good you are in tweaking search engines.
New challenge? This is a difficult task - to be really useful for today's well-informed and savvy users. But much more interesting.
Based on materials from Rohan Ayyar.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/294456/
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